What's An Undertone? How Do I Find Mine?

Right ladies, today's post is all about skin undertones.
But what is a skin undertone?!
Well, have you ever noticed that certain colours in your wardrobe or in your makeup look really good on you and some don't look the may west? This is determined by your undertone.

skin tones and undertones are often confused but in fact, they are two completely different things:

Skin undertone : the colour that lies BENEATH your skin, like a shadow.

Skin tone: the colour of the TOP layer of your skin. 



Here is a display of the different skin tones. Your skin tone basically means how tanned or how pale you are, and it quite easy to manipulate. Your skin tone can change. i.e. you can have pale skin, but get a sun tan when you go on holidays, so your skin tone changes from pale to olive/medium.

undertones are a bit more tricky.

Your undertone cannot be changed. 

There are 3 different undertones, warm, cool, and neutral.

WARM: a warm undertone means that you have sort of a yellow-ish hue to your skin. People with a warm undertone tend to tan quite easily and are usually quite sallow to begin with.

However it is possible to have pale skin and to have a warm undertone.

COOL: a cool undertone means that you have a pinky/salmon undertone to your skin. People with a cool undertone don't tend to tan as easily as those with a warm undertone but they will however still get a tan, depending on there melanin in their skin.

However, you can be sallow skinned and have a cool undertone also.

NEUTRAL: a neutral undertone means that you have neither colour as mentioned above under your skin. People with a neutral skin undertone can be sallow or pale and can tan as easily as their skins melanin will let them.

How do I Know Which Undertone I Have?!

Well, there are a few different ways of figuring this out, but I'm only going to run through the one guaranteed way, it's also not that difficult, so stay with me!

The Paper Test.

1. Take a blank sheet of white paper and hold it to your face in front of a mirror

   (ensure that you are wearing no makeup!)

2. When you hold the white to your face, you will see a hue of colour show up on your face.

3. If this hue is slightly pinky; you have a cool undertone.

    If the hue is slightly yellow-ish; you have a warm undertone.

    If you don't see any colour at all, you have a neutral unertone.

So, if you're feeling bold enough to add some new colours to your pallette now that it's SPRING, or if your simply just trying to find the right shade foundation to make your face look flawless, knowing your undertone can make a huge difference.

Here's a small table of colours that will suit your undertone, whether it cool or warm.

And if you're a lucky duck that has a NEAUTRAL undertone, well, you just look fab in any colour! 

If you're still unsure, I would recommend heading into your nearest makeup counter and asking the girls on the counter. MAC is particularly good at this.

Hope This Helped Dolls,

Aimee

Xoxo